Oklahoma City Thunder big man Nerlens Noel is currently in quarantine after forgetting to take his daily coronavirus test.
According to NBA protocols, players who miss the test will have to go under quarantine for one day. Noel missed the Thunder's scrimmage game on Tuesday to observe the protocol. Head coach Billy Donovan noted that Noel feels sorry for the honest mistake.
“Nerlens is extremely remorseful,” Donovan said, per Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman. “There's times I've been in my room and been like, ‘Oh my God, I forgot to test.' And I've gotta run down there and test. These days kind of run together so to speak and you're kind of doing the same thing every day. You've got your practices, you go into the meal room and sometimes it can slip your mind. If your test is not necessarily right around practice, it could be a little later in the day, you could forget.”
Nerlens Noel, the sixth overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, has seemingly found a home with the Thunder as a backup center. Before the 2019-20 season was suspended, Noel was averaging 7.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.0 assist, 1.0 steal, and 1.5 blocks across 18.4 minutes.
Noel is not the first NBA player to miss the daily COVID-19 testing. Both Denver Nuggets star Paul Millsap and Dallas Mavericks forward Kristaps Porzingis forgot their respective tests last week, forcing them to each miss a scrimmage and quarantine for a day.
For their first of eight seeding games, the Thunder will play against the Utah Jazz on Saturday.
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